Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters blasted “woke teachers and schools” in a new ad Friday while calling for the government to “fund students, not systems.”
The ad, which quickly garnered tens of thousands of views on Twitter within hours of its release, features Masters standing in a field as he criticizes schools, saying they are “making our kids dumber.”
WHITE HOUSE SAYS GOP IS LYING ABOUT CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN SCHOOLS, EVIDENCE SHOWS OTHERWISE
Masters took aim at the 1619 Project curriculum, which he said teaches children “that America is somehow fundamentally evil or racist,” and critical race theory, which he said “teaches kids to identify in racial terms. You’re either the victim or an oppressor based on the color of your skin.”
The 1619 Project curriculum consists of lesson plans based on a series of essays published by The New York Times in 2019, which argued that the real founding of America occurred in 1619, the year the first slave ships arrived in what would become the continental United States. The essays have drawn criticism over their historical accuracy since they were first published. Critical race theory is a lens through which to view history and culture that paints racial minorities as a universally oppressed class. Critics say it promotes racial division.
We’re going to stop woke teachers and schools from turning our kids into losers. pic.twitter.com/dkWMCG7NnR
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) November 5, 2021
“Even if you wipe away all this left-wing toxic ideology from our schools,” he went on, “the schools are still failing to teach kids the basics. We’re graduating kids that can’t even read or write.”
Masters currently serves as the president of the Thiel Foundation and is one of a number of Republican candidates, including Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona. The winner of the primary will go on to face incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
Former Trump administration national security adviser Robert O’Brien and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks have both endorsed Masters’s bid. Former President Donald Trump has not yet endorsed a candidate in the race.
“We’ve got to fund students, not systems,” Masters said, concluding his ad. “We’ve gotta make sure that young people are learning to think for themselves.”
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The ad came out on the heels of a Tuesday GOP electoral sweep in Virginia, where Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin ran on a platform that capitalized on parental concerns over schools, including the teaching of critical race theory. Youngkin’s successful campaign is being promoted as a possible blueprint for Republican electoral success.
